Daily Jewel

by Pastor Carne//, McAlester, OK
Apr. 3, 2012

“Guard Your Heart…Find the Passion”
“Above all else, guard your heart….it is the wellspring of life.” – Proverbs 4:23

I had not intended to spend as much time as I have on this one verse and “issue” but the more time I have put into this the more I realized how important this is and why we must be on our alert at all times and in all ways guard against any and every attack that is leveled against us.
I would to like to conclude by using an illustration from the life of one of my favorite authors, Mr. C.S. Lewis. Lewis is recognized as one of the greatest Christian theologians and apologist (a defender of the faith) of the 20th Century. The following is a little about his life and why I consider him to be a man of passion! Some of the quotes may be difficult to read, since he was an English scholar, but take the time read it carefully and catch the passion for yourself.
Raised in a church-going family in the Church of Ireland, Lewis became an atheist at 15, though he later described his younger days as being "very angry with God for not existing". His early separation from Christianity began when he started to view his religion as a chore and as a duty; around this time he also gained an interest in the occult as his studies expanded to include such topics. Lewis quoted Lucretius (De rerum natura, 5.198–9) as having one of the strongest arguments for atheism: "Had God designed the world, it would not be a world so frail and faulty as we see." Lewis's interest in the works of another author, George MacDonald was partly what turned him away from atheism. This can be seen particularly well through a passage in Lewis's book, “The Great Divorce,” chapter nine, when the semi-autobiographical main character meets MacDonald in Heaven: “...I tried, trembling, to tell this man all that his writings had done for me. I tried to tell how a certain frosty afternoon at Leatherhead Station when I had first bought a copy of Phantastes (being then about sixteen years old) had been to me what the first sight of Beatrice had been to Dante: Here begins the new life. I started to confess how long that Life had delayed in the region of imagination merely: how slowly and reluctantly I had come to admit that his Christendom had more than an accidental connexion with it, how hard I had tried not to see the true name of the quality which first met me in his books is Holiness.” (My interpretation: Lewis realized that McDonald’s faith was far more than duty. It had joy, it had purpose and meaning and Lewis tried his best not to let that get to him…but he could not help it.) Lewis was later influenced by arguments from his Oxford colleague and friend J.R.R. Tolkien, (author of The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings) and by the book The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton. Through these influences he slowly rediscovered Christianity. He fought greatly up to the moment of his conversion noting that he was brought into Christianity like a prodigal, "kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape." He described his last struggle in his book, Surprised by Joy: “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” Lewis was very interested in presenting a reasonable case for the truth of Christianity. Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and Miracles were all concerned, to one degree or another, with refuting popular objections to Christianity, such as "How could a good God allow pain to exist in the world?" He also became known as a popular lecturer and broadcaster, and some of his writing (including much of Mere Christianity) originated as scripts for radio talks or lectures. I apologize if this seems boring or overkill—but the truth of the matter is Lewis is a classic case of a man who, once finding his passion, used that passion to be an incredible Christian. His writings have impacted thousands—helping them to both develop and strengthen their faith. His children’s books, The Chronicles of Narnia, are now reaching millions thanks to (of all things) Hollywood, and the Disney Corporation. The message in the pictures is subtle, but the Gospel message in them is clear. A relationship with God is more than duty…more than routine. Guard your heart against anything that would make you believe or accept that.